MNsure: Week 1

• MNsure officials on Friday offered a week-ending accounting of activity on the new health care insurance exchange website.

• Consumers logging onto the MNsure site continued to be stymied by a section designed to verify their identity. MNsure Executive Director April Todd-Malmlov said the problem is with the federal server, and that by Friday 97 percent of consumers were “able to get through at the MNsure end.”

• Despite the frustrations, nearly 5,000 accounts have been created, which is higher than anticipated, Todd-Malmlov said. The call center averaged 1,000 calls a day, she said, and saw an equal distribution of calls from across the state.

Loss of water from rocks during drought caused California's Sierra Nevada to rise nearly an inch (2.5 centimeters) in height from October 2011 to October 2015, according to a new NASA study made public Wednesday.

"Net neutrality" regulations, designed to prevent internet service providers like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Charter from favoring some sites and apps over others, are on the chopping block. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on a proposal that would not only undo the Obama-era rules that have been in place since 2015, but will forbid states to put anything similar in place.